We know each other very well. Practised plenty of times together. He’s a player that when he’s winning matches, he’s a super dangerous opponent against everybody. He is very quick, very good physical performance. He’s aggressive with his shots, he’s going for the shots all the time.

Sousa on playing Rafa:

Rafa is a great player, there are no words to describe him.

Again I will have the crowd against me and I will try my best.

To make it to the fourth round, the Portuguese ace won a five-set thriller against Britain’s Dan Evans. In Grand Slams, he has only reached the fourth round once as a singles player, coming in the US Open in 2018 – but did reach the Australian Open semi-finals with Leonardo Mayer in the men’s doubles in January.

At the age of 19, Sousa won his first professional title in a Futures doubles event. Since then, the 30-year-old has managed just three ATP world titles, including at the Estoril Open in home country last year.

On the eight occasions when Rafa has cleared the second week, he’s made it to the championship match in five of them.